How Favre we've come

I'm sure that all of you, particularly you Vikings fans out there, have already heard plenty about this matter. But being that at least three of the four bloggers on this page are Green Bay Packers fans, I wanted to take a quick moment to note my thankfulness to God for Brett Favre.

Sure, it's a bit ridiculous. But I'm from Green Bay (I can't say I'm a Green Bay native, although my birthplace of Burlington, Wis., happens to be the hometown of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo). Favre joined the Packers when I was 11 years old. He has been a part of my life ever since.

Although I've never met Brett Favre (he did respond to my question on NFL.com once), I have grown up with him. Over the course of 261 consecutive games as starting quarterback, Favre in himself has been an unmistakable chapter in the Packers' already remarkable history. What he accomplished today — breaking Dan Marino's record with his 421st touchdown pass, and doing it here in the Twin Cities, against the Vikings, to boot — cements his place among the greatest figures in sports history. He has brought greatness back to Green Bay, and it's largely on his account that a very raw Packers team is 4-0 right now. (Tracy and I got to celebrate today's victory over the Vikes at a seminary buddy's apartment. I wore my old-school Favre jersey, and Tracy wore my old Don Majkowski jersey — now there's a reminder of how far we've come.)

But that's only part of what I'm thankful for. More than what Favre has been able to accomplish on the football field, it's how he has accomplished it. You can see his love for the game of football in his eyes each week. With almost every touchdown pass has come a burst of childlike excitement. And, although you can't ignore the amount of money the guy is making, you know that the biggest reason he comes back year after year is his love for what he does. If, as a pastor, I can be as passionate about what I do every Sunday for 16 years straight, I'll be in good shape.

And it's the circumstances in which Favre has made his accomplishments. Through this great streak of games, he has faced an addiction to painkillers; the deaths of several family members, most notably his father; Hurricane Katrina's devastating effects on his hometown; and the breast-cancer battle of his wife, Deanna (make sure you check out her recent article for Guideposts magazine). We've seen how he has changed in the process. A couple years ago, as a reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, I wrote about Favre's off-the-field challenges in a package we had prepared for his retirement. But the stories never got published because, as in every offseason that had the newspaper buzzing with speculation, Favre came back for more.

As dangerous as it is to consider any sports figure a role model, you can't help but look up to the guy. A few weeks ago, when my Grandpa Don's hospitalization left my dad contemplating whether to go through with leading church the next day, my dad admitted to thinking about Favre and his decision to play on the day after his own father's death because it was what his father would have wanted him to do. (As an interesting side note, as my grandpa has recovered, he has regularly had difficulty remembering my mom's name and yet correctly identified Favre in the newspaper immediately.)

Yes, ridiculous as it may be, I'm thankful to God for Brett Favre because I, like so many other Packers fans (and even countless Vikings fans who respect him to no end), have gotten to witness a great story as it has unfolded. I have had the pleasure of cheering on an especially durable and likable football hero as he has grown up right along with me.

And for the record, uh, yeah — I definitely am more thankful to God for Jesus.